A mysterious death in Singapore

Did a young American engineer commit suicide, or was he murdered? asks Asia Sentinel

A remarkable story in the Financial Times about the mysterious 2012 death of a young American engineer in Singapore has raised serious questions about whether he was murdered to keep him from blowing the whistle on the theft of militarily sensitive technology by a Singapore government-owned research institution and Huawei Technologies, the Chinese tech giant.

The story, nearly 5,500 words in length, was written by former New York Times correspondent Raymond Bonner and Christine Spolar, the FT’s investigations editor.

In a country where any controversial story invites defamation or contempt of court lawsuits in Singapore courts from the government and/or the family of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the FT story (which can be found here) outlines what appear to be serious discrepancies in the investigation by the Singapore authorities into the death of Todd. It also describes concerted moves by the Singapore government and a wide range of other institutions to stonewall outside investigators, including refusing any attempts to bring in the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

On Sunday, apparently prompted by the newspaper story, the Singaporean police released a statement saying the FBI had been kept “informed” of the murder investigation but offering no details, according to the Financial Times.

“Our procedures for investigating cases, particularly those involving death of persons, are strict and of high international standards. We have handled this case in the same way as other cases that police have looked into,” the statement said, as reported by the Financial Times.

As yet there has been no mention of the story in the Straits Times, Singapore’s quasi-government newspaper although authorities said a belated inquest would be held in March.